And scored only seven points. Because they can't sustain drives. (44% Success Rate, one successful 5 yard run by Portis).

I'm guessing there's no way this success continues in the second half, because the Redskins would have won the game.

First half Goats

#1 and #2 is Greg Blache

Because the Giants averaged a totally ridiculous 7.03 yards per play and sustained every drive they had, never punting in the first half.

The Redskins blitzed 11 times in the rain in the first half. THEY GAVE UP EIGHT STRAIGHT SUCCESSFUL PLAYS ON BLITZES. If the definition of insanity is, in fact, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, stadium security should have arrested Blache at halftime.

It wasn't just that the blitzes weren't working because our coverage was poor, it's that we never got remotely close to Manning on a blitz the entire half, and he and coordinator Kevin Gilbride diagnosed every single blitz pre-snap. The Giants got three plays of 25 yards or more off of Redskins blitzes.

Also, it WAS RAINING!!! What the hell are we doing sending people after the quarterback when we had no traction?

Hall, really, really stinks in coverage. Blache has a man-crush on him though. Hall defensed a pass nicely on a play where Manning was pressured, and he intercepted a pass that Manning put in a perfect spot on Hixon's body, but Hixon didn't know was being thrown. I'll never trash Hall's ability to locate the ball in the air, because he has an uncanny ability to locate a football in flight, but he's rarely in position to do so.

Outside of those two plays, here's Hall's first half:

-Beaten on a slant by Toomer, misses the tackle, and then late hits Toomer after the play, accounting for 23 total yards allowed.

-Beaten on a simple option route by Steve Smith for 11 yards and a first down.

-Hall falls down as soon as Toomer makes an in cut. Give him a break because the field is slick, I suppose. 17 yards against.

-10.2 yards per target in the first half for Hall. It looks better with the pick, of course.

Smoot got toasted by Toomer on the 40 yard TD pass, and was responsble for Steve Smith on the throw that looked like it hit the ground at the two minute warning.

So either Amani Toomer is an elite NFL receiver, or our coverage is terrible.

Rogers didn't have a great half either, but compared to those two, he was brilliant.

#4 Redskins WRs

James Thrash had two third down targets and converted neither. First one, he got screwed when the official got in his way and forced him to alter his route, but the second one was a great throw by Campbell against 8 man coverage, and Thrash flat dropped it.

Moss, Randle El, and Kelly each had one key drop each in the first half. Randle El's was the worst because he allowed the coverage to strip a football that Campbell got to him with more than enough time to secure it. Campbell struggled just a little bit more than Eli Manning did to throw the ball in the conditions, as I counted three times where his throw missed it's mark by enough to cause a drop or deflected pass. However, if the receivers catch the ball, the Redskins have 17, or maybe 20 points at half easily.

#5 Special Teams

They suck, except the kick return team, which gave the offense average to great field position on all four kick returns. Plackemeier is terrible, and Suisham is really struggling. Tryon is not a good gunner.

Players who did well in the first half

#1 Jim Zorn

Zorn's running schemes in the first quarter were perplexing as the Redskins tried to run into 8 man fronts without stretching the defense via our best running play, but after the first two drives, Zorn called the best half of football ever.

He countered the respect the Giants ran for Portis with play action and screens. Zorn ran SEVEN play action plays in the first half and two screens. The results of these nine plays: 71 yards, 67% successful, and most importantly, eight plays where the Giants pass rush didn't get within 5 yards of Campbell.

The lone exception was the single sack allowed by the Redskins in the half when Rabach got beaten off the snap by Cofield. But the conditions combined with the playcalling created only one play where Campbell was so much as pressured (the sack).

#2 The Offensive Line

See above paragraph.

#3 Jason Campbell

Campbell had a heckuva half of football. He moved all over in the pocket in those max protect schemes, saw the field very well, and spread the ball around. When he screwed up, it was problems with accuracy, not anything inherent in his fundamentals, and he found wide open throwing lanes, and was just spinning it the whole half, as Jaws would say. No help from Portis, and he made things happen with little help from receivers who wouldn't get open and wouldn't catch the ball when they did.

#4 Defensive Line

Boy, did these guys play well in the first half. Jason Taylor looked like Jason Taylor for the first time. Griffin and Evans were great against the run. Montgomery was an unblockable beast, killing a drive with a sack. Lorenzo Alexander made four or five great plays including blowing up the QB sneak attempt. Andre Carter didn't play much, but he did have a critical pressure on a third down.

When we didn't blitz, the four man rush did great. We collapsed the pocket on Eli and did brilliantly on front side runs by Jacobs, effectively neutralizing him in weather conditions that should have really been to his advantage. There weren't running lanes, period.

#5 Chris Horton and London Fletcher

Were everywhere. Not really against the pass, but the run. They closed incredibly quickly on Jacobs.

I'll try to see how much of this changes in the second half, but we won the turnover battle, lost the yardage battle almost exclusively on defense, and both offensive coaches totally outsmarted the defensive coaches.

Receivers have to catch the football, and run crisper routes. Moss especially.

__________________ according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

I'm a little more hesitant to fault the defensive play or the play calling though. Remember, this is the highest scoring offense in the league and Manning was on fire in the first half; he converted numerous third and longs by perfectly placing balls that otherwise would have been incomplete; the coverage was that tight. As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm beginning to believe that when Manning is at his best, he's as good as anyone (especially with the deep ball) and he was at his best in the first half of the game. Skins gambled and they played the price. The fact is, the Giants are a superior team, and you won't beat a superior team without throwing the dice.

I have a hard time blaming our CB's for anything as the D line is giving them no help and QB's have all day to throw. You take any team with a good QB and good Wr's and they are going to beat you when giving all day to throw the ball. In our win's this year we have been lucky that either the teams with good WR's and QB's had an off game or we were playing teams withe poor QB's and WR's.

See #4 under players having a good game.

__________________ according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

I'm a little more hesitant to fault the defensive play or the play calling though. Remember, this is the highest scoring offense in the league and Manning was on fire in the first half; he converted numerous third and longs by perfectly placing balls that otherwise would have been incomplete; the coverage was that tight. As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm beginning to believe that when Manning is at his best, he's as good as anyone (especially with the deep ball) and he was at his best in the first half of the game. Skins gambled and they played the price. The fact is, the Giants are a superior team, and you won't beat a superior team without throwing the dice.

Eli definately beat us in the first half, but I think every QB in the league is capable of beating us in the same way if we use the same gameplan in the same conditions.

We were severely handicapped in this game by our defensive coaching, and it really speaks to the aggressiveness that the DL and tacklers played with that we were in this game at half.

__________________ according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

No, this is a warpath exclusive. Unless you're talking about my game notes spreadsheet, in which case, yes I do, but it will be way more cool when I have the game finished.

What made me think about it is the..........cry for qb change on the Skins.
One station was running some stats that say:
On teams that have suspect O-lines, and "high" rate of sacks and hurries, that qb rating average of 78%
Teams with strong O lines and low sacks and hurries, that qb rating is average 88%. For the purpose of their study, they had JC at 88%.......and naturally performing above average....considering.
Your analysis brings to light some interesting things!

__________________ Goodbye Sean..........Vaya Con Dios
thankyou Joe.......“God made certain people to play football. He was one of them.” – Joe Gibbs